


Sinister

by Caprichoso



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bigotry, Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2016-11-09
Packaged: 2018-08-30 01:39:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8513770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caprichoso/pseuds/Caprichoso
Summary: Akumas are driven by a sense of justice, a need to right the wrongs of the world. When hatred takes the guise of heroism, though, the implications are dire.
One-shot in which a violent bigot is chosen as an akuma.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this lying around half-finished for quite a while, hoping I would never get the impetus to finish it. After last night, my friends are terrified for their physical safety, and this is all I can think about.
> 
> Contains a graphic description of dead bodies.

  
No one in Paris truly feared Akumas.

For all their grandstanding and ostentatious attacks, the villains that plagued Paris thanks to Hawkmoth were more the harmless, mustache-twirling kind rather than the sinister sort. The prevailing theory in the Ladyblog's comment section regarding this trend was that it stemmed from the people Hawkmoth selected as his victims. Preteens, service workers, police officers-- none of the people who fell prey to the butterflies were evil in and of themselves; quite the opposite, in fact. Their identities as antagonists stemmed from mistreatment, some offense against their sense of justice; they were aware of right and wrong, and had strong feelings that drove them to right the wrongs they had experienced. That this manifested itself in such colorful ways was, more than likely, a side effect of the superhero mythos ingrained in the collective unconscious of the Western world. The Akumas were heroes in their own minds, champions of causes so singular as to be absurd, but heroes nonetheless.

Despite their faults, the fright they inflicted, the damage they caused before Miraculous Cure swept it all away, the Akumas were good people underneath it all, fighting for what they saw as right. No one questioned just what the consequences would be if one of those butterflies were to land on a truly evil person; the Akumas needed a strong sense of justice, after all, so it could never happen.

Still, an older generation murmured to itself, watching the world shift in hauntingly familiar ways, some perceptions of justice were horribly skewed, and such strongly held convictions coupled with hate were to be feared above all else.

 

* * *

 

 

"Don't, Chat." Ladybug's voice sounded strange in her own ears, as though she were hearing herself underwater. "Don't go over there."

"My Lady!" Chat Noir rushed to her side, concern clear on his face. "I'm sorry, I came as soon as I could. Is this Akuma really using bombs? Is anyone hurt?" He stopped short, brow furrowing beneath his mask. "What's wrong?"

_Everything is wrong. Nothing will ever be right again._  "The Akuma," she choked out. "He..." _Oh god please let this be a nightmare, this can't be happening._

Chat's hand on her shoulder was a small comfort, a tiny spot of calm in the midst of a maelstrom. "It's okay, bugaboo. It's just an Akuma. Whatever he did, we can fix it."

"I don't know if I can fix this," Ladybug whispered. "Chat, it's a _family_ , a mother and her two children. And they're..." The tears she'd been holding back finally broke loose to fall to the pavement, the same pavement where the bodies were twisted in ways that made her almost believe they were dolls, because humans didn't bend like that, _couldn't_  bend their arms and legs at those angles.

"But... your cure. It fixes everything. Even if something really horrible happened, you can--"

"I don't _know_!" Gritting her teeth and clenching her fists to prevent herself from collapsing, she forced herself to take calming breaths. "Please... I can't think about that now. We need to stop him. If I can't bring them back, I don't know if I..." She trailed off, hoping her partner would understand.

"Okay," Chat murmured, cheek bumping against hers. Forehead to forehead would have been too direct, too much; he seemed to sense that, giving her just a bit more space while still reassuring her as best he could. "We'll do this. It'll be okay, bugaboo."

And for the briefest of moments, she believed him enough to forget her mounting terror.

That was, until an image appeared in the sky-- the Akuma, holding a handful of bloodstained scarves. As he proudly displayed the red-slashed crescent moon symbol on his chest, the source of those scarves became horrifyingly apparent, as did this Akuma's goals.

"Too long, France has submitted to slavery and unjust occupation! The filth overruns our streets, and our pandering politicians call it our duty to allow it! No more! I am the Patriot, and I call upon all Frenchmen who wish to remain free to listen to my voice and follow me!"

The words were familiar, beyond familiar; they echoed in the very spirit of Paris itself, remnants of a war long past, a lone voice fighting for hope. This time, though, the Akuma driving the attacks was twisting those words into a message of hate, perverting a history of nobility to the basest of ends.

"I think I'm gonna have a talk with this guy after this is over," Chat growled as the image in the sky flickered out, pulling away and starting off in the direction of the Akuma-- straight along the path that would take him past...

"Not that way!" Ladybug's fingers closed around Chat's wrist, halting him before he could reach the other side of the overturned car that concealed the bodies. "We should go around."

Chat turned back to her, taking her hand in his own. "It's okay; I've seen bodies before."

"At funerals?"

Chat blinked, brow furrowing. "Yeah. Why are you asking—"

"It's not the same. I knew it wouldn't be exactly the same, but... I had no idea. They look wrong. You look at them and things aren't where they should be and it's just..." Ladybug's vision blurred with saltwater once more, but rather than providing reprieve, it left a blank canvas for her traumatized mind to display the image she most wanted to forget. "No matter how much I look at them, there's some part of me that can't understand that they're actual people and they're really dead and this is real life and not a movie or a bad dream and I wanna wake up, I want to wake up in my bed and have this be a nightmare but I know it's not because I could never have imagined that they would look like..."

Chat's grip on her hand tightened. "My Lady, I--"

"You know the worst part?" As the tears began to fall, Ladybug forced herself to meet her partner's eyes. "They look confused. Their last few seconds, they were confused and afraid because they couldn't understand it either."

"My lady." In that moment, she could _feel_  it-- the endearment so easily dismissed was a placeholder for her name, the name she had never told him; he ached to utter syllables he didn't know, to exercise a degree of power she hadn't given. And it wasn't to halt her breath, to sweep her off her feet with romance and theatrics; no, this was to ground her, to lend her whatever strength she needed.

As she buried her face in Chat's shoulder and let out muffled whimpers, the shattered pieces inside of Ladybug began to migrate back into place. There was a city to save; they had to stop this akuma before he took more innocent lives. She had plenty of time to fall apart later.

And fall apart she would.

The rage burning inside her hurt; it was a palpable physical pain, and it kept her focused. For now, that fury was enough to propel her onward.

Sniffling and pulling away, Ladybug dashed the tears from her eyes and wiped her face, summoning every bit of resolve she could. "I'm going to need you to protect me, Chat."

"Always, my Lady. He won't lay a finger on you."

Ladybug shook her head. "Not from him. From myself. From what I want to do."

"What do you mean?" Green eyes clouded with confusion.

"I want to make him suffer," she murmured, voice husky with emotion. "God help me, I want to pay him back for everything he's done. But that's not who we are, it's not what we do. And if I use my power for that... I can't be Ladybug anymore." Forcing herself to meet Chat eye to eye, she placed a hand on his arm. "That's why I can't let you go over there. I need you to stop me if I start to cross that line."

Chat let out a sigh of frustration, the ears of his costume flattened backwards. "But if I see them, I can understand what you're going through! You don't have to go through this alone."

"If you see what he did... you won't want to stop me. You can't go over there. Trust me, Chaton. Please."

His mouth worked in silence, as though he were searching for the right words to rebut her, to protest, but finally, he closed his eyes and gave a single nod. "I trust you, my Lady."

Just as Ladybug was about to utter her thanks, another explosion echoed through the streets, followed by a tirade filled with racial epithets and vitriol.

Chat tensed, half-crouched and ready to spring into action, but he hesitated, glancing at her. "I... what do we do?"

"We stop him, the way we always have," she replied, voice far steadier than she felt. "We find the cursed item, we cleanse it, we end this. And regardless of whether Miraculous Cure brings that family back, you need to make sure I stop there."

"I promise, my Lady." Chat didn't smile, didn't wink or joke; there was nothing to alleviate the tension in the air this time. There was only their duty, and a vow that her partner would be by her side no matter how dire the situation.

It was a far cry from comfort, but as they ran into battle, it was enough.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> In spite of everything, there is still hope.
> 
> Also, it has been confirmed that Miraculous Cure can reverse death, but in this case, Marinette doesn't know yet.


End file.
